ITHACA, N.Y., May 10 (AP) - Sarah Betsy Fuller, lead attorney in a federal
case that established the right of Native Americans to practice their religion
freely in New York state prisons, has died. She was 58.

Fuller died April 21 of breast cancer, according to Cornell University, where
she taught.

A longtime lawyer with Prisoners Legal Services of New York, Fuller also was
active in exposing the punishment in New York state of giving some prisoners
only bread and water and helped eliminate some strip search practices.

When New York Gov. George Pataki issued a proclamation in the mid-1990s honoring
the contributions of Native Americans, Fuller wrote him and the commissioner of
the state Department of Correctional Services suggesting that a fitting tribute
would be to let Native Americans practice their religion in prison.

When Hughes received no reply, she filed a lawsuit that the state did not
challenge. Negotiations over two years resulted in an agreement to permit Native
American inmates to conduct ceremonies, possess medicine bags and other
religious items, and make daily prayers in the traditional way.

Fuller worked in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice in
the 1970s, also acting as a staff attorney providing legal services to Navajo
and Hopi Indians in Arizona.

NEWS April 30, 2004

Mourners Say Goodbye to Prof Sarah Betsy Fuller '68

Devoted Law School professor missed, remembered

by Courtney Potts
Cornell Daily Sun Staff Writer

This past Saturday, mourners filled Temple Beth-El to say
goodbye to a woman who had devoted her life to improving the lives of others.
Sarah Betsy Fuller '68, a former professor in the Cornell Law School, died on
April 21 after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 58.

Fuller, who was best known for her work as an advocate of prisoners' rights,
graduated from Cornell in 1968. She went on to complete a master's in sociology
at the University of Wisconsin in 1971 and to earn a law degree from Stanford
University in 1974.

Over the years, her work included a three-year stint with the U.S. Department
of Justice, time with D.N.A. People's Legal Services, a group located in Arizona
that provides legal services to Navajo and Hopi Indians, almost 20 years with
the local office of Prisoners' Legal Services of New York as well as teaching at
Cornell.

She also spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the Technical University of
El Salvador. While there, she developed a clinical legal program for the
University's law school and organized the first Central American conference of
clinical law teachers.

"Betsy really did live out her beliefs in her life -- unlike most of us
who believe one thing but compromise enough to live comfortably," said
Prof. Glenn G Galbreath, law. "she could have had a very comfortable life,
but chose to devote herself to addressing the plight of the underrepresented:
Native Americans in South Dakota, the people of El Salvador, low income folks in
Tompkins County, prisoners in NY State's prison system."

Fuller's career was widely considered a success.

"Sometimes you can do this work for your whole life and feel like you
have nothing to show for it," said Tom Terrizzi '69, executive director of
Prisoners' Legal Services of New York. "She had a lot to show for it."

Fuller is best known for three cases, all of which relate to prisoners'
rights. In one, she fought to grant Native American prisoners in New York State
the right to practice their religions while incarcerated.

According to a recent press release from the Cornell News Service, the case
began when Gov. George Pataki issued a proclamation "honoring the
contributions of Native Americans."

Fuller than wrote to both him and the Department of Correctional Services to
suggest that allowing Native Americans to practice traditional religions while
in prison would be a fitting way of showing the state's gratitude.

When she received no answer from the Governor, she filed suit against the
state. The state did not challenge the suit and, after two years of
negotiations, an agreement was reached whereby the inmates were allowed to
"conduct ceremonies, possess medicine bags and other religious items and
make daily prayers in the traditional way."

As a result of her involvement in this case, Fuller was later invited by the
Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations, to be part of a delegation giving testimony at a
United Nations inquiry into the status of Native Americans. According to Kirk
Hughes, the lead plaintiff in the original case, Fuller considered this
"one of her most significant accomplishments."

Another famous and long-standing case that Fuller fought was over
strip-search policies in N.Y. prisons. According to Terrizzi, the strip-search
procedures were extremely humiliating. The searches were sometimes conducted in
front of groups of people, he explained, and the guards would occasionally make
inappropriate comments about the inmates' bodies.

As a result of the lawsuit, an agreement was reached to improve the way in
which the searches were conducted. However, according to Terrizzi, Fuller went
back to court several times to pursue violations of the agreement. In one such
case, guards had videotaped the inmates as they stripped. Fuller had the tapes
destroyed, arranged for counseling for the inmates affected, and won cash
damages for them as well.

According to Terrizzi, during a period of about ten years, "[Fuller] was
the one who really pushed [the DOCS] to live up to their agreement."

One of the final major cases that Fuller worked on started with a complaint
from a prisoner -- who was being kept in extended solitary confinement -- that
he was being fed nothing but bread and water. This case is still being argued,
but according to the Cornell News Service press release, Terrizzi pledged that
Prisoners' Legal Services "would work to end the practice [Fuller]
uncovered. 'She lit a fire under us,' he said."

In fact, one of the lawyers who is arguing this case is a former student of
Fuller's. Jim Bogin '84, law, still remembers having classes with Fuller at the
Law School, and was a little surprised when he joined Prisoners' Legal Services
and ran into her again.

Bogin's memories of Fuller support Terrizzi's description of her as "a
tenacious lawyer with a very big heart." He recalled one incident in which
Fuller was taking the deposition from one of her opposition's witnesses. During
the course of the deposition, it came out that it was the witness's birthday.
After everyone took a break for lunch, Fuller returned to the room with a
birthday cake.

If the measure of a great life is how many people you have touched, then
Betsy Fuller's life was certainly great. According to Terrizzi, her memorial
service was "overflowing" with friends and acquaintances, many of whom
were surprised to hear just how much Fuller had been involved in.